I honestly don't understand how Baylor has 2 top 10 players (in the nation) in next years recruiting class. They haven't won a conference title or made the Final 4 since 1950. Is Scott Drew that great of a recruiter?

Anastos: “Yeah, but we have some older kids coming in. We’re not getting to the point where we’re starting to be able to be more patient (in when we bring in a recruit). … To answer your question about North Dakota, I thought it would take a good eight or nine years to be able to get ourselves in a position where you’re competing for those most elite prospects, and you can build the depth in your roster. Because here’s the challenge — building the depth in your talent pool to overcome early departures. And that’s something you try to plan for, but you can’t. ... That’s a lot to overcome with where we are today. That takes time.

We were lucky to draft Datsyuk and Zetterberg in the late rounds, but you can't count on that. Look what happened to former powerhouse teams like the Avalanche and Devils. The new top teams all have something in common, top 5 draft picks on their team. Chicago with Toews and Kane, Pens with Crosby and Malkin, Lightning wth Stamkos and Hedman, Kings with Doughty, Capitals with Ovechkin. Rangers and Blues are the only Cup contenders that don't have that.

That happens when you hit 37. Players age much quicker now than the days of the "clutch & grab era". I actually think Pavel has done a decent job for his age. Zetterberg on the other hand, has never been the same since that back surgery. He looks real slow out there.

Hitting is overrated in the new NHL. You need speed and guys that can score. We have speed with our young guys like Larkin and Athanasiou, but we lack scoring ever since Holland let Hossa walk and Franzen got injured. If you look at the goal scoring, a rookie leads the team with only 21 goals. Nyquist had back to back 28/27 goal seasons and now he only has 16. Also, it's obvious that Pavel and Z are on the downside of their career. At some point we just have to accept that all good things come to an end. It was a hell of a run, but I'm actually looking forward to rebuilding and watching a younger team with guys like Larkin, Mantha and Mrazek leading the way.

Lidstrom was able to mask our blue line problems for a long time. Our D had been going down ever since Rafalski retired. The blame should go to Ken Holland because he was unable to sign Suter and had no back up plan. None of the guys in Grand Rapids have really developed and that goes back to Holland's poor drafting of d-men. Also, instead of playing the kids he signed guys like Colaiacovo and Commodore.